Known projector type vehicle lights have been configured to include a bulb serving as a light source; a projector lens having a focus and disposed in front of the bulb; an elliptical reflector disposed behind the bulb and having a first focus at or near which the bulb is disposed and a second focus at or near which the focus of the projector is disposed; and a shade disposed between the projector lens and the bulb (reflector) and having an upper edge at or near the focus of the projector lens. When the bulb is turned on to emit light beams toward the elliptical reflector, the light beams are reflected by the reflector toward the projector lens. On the way to the projector lens, part of the light beams is shielded by the shade and the remaining part of the light beams is projected forward by the projector lens. The shielding of part of the light beams can form a horizontal bright/dark boundary line in the desired light distribution pattern in front of a vehicle and prevent the light beams from being projected more upward than the bright/dark boundary line. Accordingly, the desired light distribution pattern, for example, for low beam of a vehicle light can be formed while suppressing the occurrence of glare light with respect to an opposed vehicle.
In this configuration, however, the utilization efficiency of light from the bulb may deteriorate due to the shielding of the reflected light beams by the shade. To cope with this problem, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-331617 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 6,921,188) discloses a projector type vehicle light that can improve the light utilization efficiency. The technology disclosed in this Japanese publication includes a first reflector provided obliquely in front of an elliptical reflector, and another (second) reflector provided below the first reflector. In addition, still another third reflector is provided in front of the second reflector. According to this technology, the light beams emitted from a bulb obliquely upward and forward cannot enter the elliptical reflector, but can be directly reflected by the first reflector, and then sequentially reflected by the second reflector and the third reflector, whereby the reflected light beams may be projected forward and obliquely sideward.
Accordingly, in this technology disclosed in the publication, the light beams that do not enter the elliptical reflector can only be reflected by the first reflector, but the light beams that are shielded by the shade cannot be utilized efficiently. This results in still low light utilization efficiency. In addition to this, the projector type vehicle light needs three additional reflectors other than the elliptical reflector, thereby increasing the parts number. This may increase the entire costs as well as manufacturing costs.